Is Overqualified.com Just Cheeky Scientist in Disguise?
The founder of Cheeky Scientist launches a similar career services website with a seperate LLC, with no mention of "Cheeky Scientist" on the website.
As promised, this edition of the newsletter highlights a website called overqualified.com, which bears some striking similarities to cheekyscientist.com. I've covered Cheeky Scientist before, largely due to a number of client concerns, ranging from high-priced career services to marketing and sales tactics. I occasionally receive direct messages on how to get a refund and how they found After Your PhD through the Cheeky Scientist article. To be clear, I fully support organizations that offer paid help to job seekers, but both the cost and the way those career services are marketed are important factors to consider.
Cheeky Scientist is a well-known name in the alt-ac career services space, so I felt it was important to mention a new venture announced by Dr. Isaiah Hankel earlier this year: overqualified.com. What’s odd is that there’s no mention of Cheeky Scientist anywhere on the Overqualified website, despite similar content and design choices and an overlapping audience.
If you attended the recent event or signed up for anything related, I’d love to hear your experience. Feel free to email me at afteryourphd@gmail.com.
Different perspectives are always welcome.
Dr. Isaiah Hankel has a PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology and is the founder and CEO of Cheeky Scientist. Dr. Isaiah Hankel argues that the biggest challenge in the 2025 job market is the "Overqualified Crisis," where highly skilled, educated, and experienced professionals (including PhDs)—especially those over 40—are being replaced by AI or lower-cost labor and facing widespread rejection in their job searches. This article has less to say about Dr. Isaiah, and I welcome Dr. Isaiah Hankel to reach out if he’d like to share more about overqualified.com—its purpose, how it differs from Cheeky Scientist, and what potential job seekers can expect in terms of pricing.
Reviewing the Website - Overqualified.com
I’ve been reviewing the Overqualified.com website to better understand its goals and how it sets itself apart from Cheeky Scientist. Overall, several of the marketing and business choices confuse me about the intention of the site and how it is marketing its services.
I've outlined a few of those mixed signals below.
For example:
Overqualified.com promotes recurring “free” events, including one scheduled for June 27th.
The site features design choices that are strikingly similar to those used by Cheeky Scientist.
This raises the question: Are these truly separate businesses, or simply structured to appear that way? (see the comparison below).
The LLC listed for Overqualified.com is LPZI, LLC—not Cheeky Scientist. What’s the purpose of this business choice?
Despite Cheeky Scientist being a well-known brand, there’s no mention of it anywhere on the Overqualified site.
The Overqualified Facebook page also mirrors Cheeky Scientist’s branding and tone, yet it currently has zero likes and followers, and again, no connection to Cheeky is acknowledged.
There’s no mention of pricing anywhere on the Overqualified.com website, though “career services” are referenced in the site’s terms and conditions. From what I can tell, the events appear to be free, but the services themselves are not.
This raises a reasonable question: What is the actual goal of the website if no pricing is provided upfront? Is it primarily a lead generation tool—designed to gather user information through email forms and surveys—or a funnel for upselling other services later on? And how much do those services actually cost?
The business address listed is 300 N Center St Unit 6, Casper, WY 82601. The address appears to be an unmarked unit in Wyoming with no corresponding business presence currently visible on Google Maps. It could simply be outdated or unlisted, but it’s an odd detail to include so prominently on the site footer.
Are PhDs Overqualified For Industry Roles?
Outside of the website itself, overqualified.com does bring up a recurring question I see on social media. Are PhDs overqualified for industry roles?
Not always. In some cases, PhDs can be underqualified for industry roles.
It all depends on the role and the experience a PhD holder can bring to the industry role.
Just because you have a PhD doesn’t make you more or less qualified for a role.
It’s how you communicate those experiences and your willingness to ask questions that helps guide your career pivot in the right direction. In my field of SEO, I had to upskill and build a portfolio; a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences didn’t make me overqualified for my first full-time role as an SEO Analyst.
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